The Problem is Dear Voice Overist, you’re dull!

You’re trying so hard to get your name out there and the word dull is not necessarily an indictment on your voice acting skills – It’s YOU! You’re dull!

Of course I don’t mean you’re dull people. I mean that you’ve become so focused on self-promotion that you’ve forgotten all about content, all about other people and all about life.

On the VO webwaffle page you post something about a job you’ve just voiced, that’s it. You believe the fact you have done something is in itself worth posting and is inherently interesting, it isn’t! You’re dull! There’s no detail, no story, nothing other than “I showed up for work today and some work showed up for me”.

Last year I attended Sue and Ian’s wedding. You don’t know them so that’s of no particular interest to you but what was nice was that I got through the entire event without talking about my work. It was Sue and Ian’s day, not another opportunity to network or get a much needed ego massage. Sue and Ian are friends, have been for years. My VO friends are different. Many are not really friends at all other than due to a random click on a mouse – ADD PHILIP AS YOUR FRIEND. Like good electronic cyber friends they then ignore me other than to regale me with dreary anecdotes about having 5 auditions to get out by 4pm for a pencil company website and ………………and nothing! No interesting part to the story. You see, you’re dull!

You’ve got the social and electronic media thing cooking on gas yet it’s still not quite working for you. Your inbox isn’t as full as it should be with jobs and the phone is not ringing endlessly. It’s not the “nature of the beast” or “the current economic climate” it’s people becoming battle weary. You say nothing of interest, do nothing of interest and write/post/blog/twitter on it ad nauseum – You’re dull! You are the sort of person people emigrate in order to avoid. Even using an electron microscope and a hyperbolic microphone most people could not find their interest in anything you have to say, write about or anything you do. But that’s ok because you only want to promote your career, you’re not looking to engage people you’re looking to get them to hire you. Ask yourself this – Mr Windswept and Interesting or Dave Dullard, both equally capable VOs – Who would you hire? Exactly!

The real downside of constantly self-promoting, apart from the dullness, is that people stop reading, stop listening and stop thinking of you as a viable option when a job crops up. I know you don’t believe me but it’s true and if you want to climb the VO ladder don’t get VO coaching, get interested in other people and become interesting. People should want to spend time with Philip Banks not a VO from Portgordon. Producers and directors should take away more than a good take from a session with you.

I heard someone say that in the world of Voice Over artists it’s difficult to find the characters, there used to be plenty around. No one is suggesting you manufacture a life and soul of the party persona, just give a little of yourself.

Two silly examples for you:-

A Promo Producer who works for one of the US TV networks has a photo of my dog as the screensaver on her office PC.

Cynthia, PA to the Head of Presentation and Progamme Planning at another TV station puts down the telephone.

“You’ve been talking to Philip” says her colleague.

“How do you know?” asks Cynthia.

“You were laughing most of the time!”


There really is more to this than meets the eye. It’s time to take stock. Let’s look at two jobs. Job one is self-promoting dullard, job two is Voice Over. The jobs are mutually exclusive you must choose one.

My VO job is not going quite the way I wanted – Of course it isn’t, that’s not the job you chose, feel like a career change? It’s never too late.